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The Fashion Statement: Top Ten Trends for Spring 2011

New York fashion week at Lincoln Center is a wrap and we've tallied up the results. In a word? '70s. Want more words? Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver.

Fashion weeks in London, Paris and Milan have yet to dictate the top ten trends of Spring of next year, but here's an early take.

SHORTS: Everyone, and we mean everyone, showed shorts in their spring collections. Whether short and roomy at Badgley Mischka or long and blouse-y at Thakoon or almost Capri-length at Ralph Lauren, shorts are going to be the get for spring.

STUDIO 54: There were so much '70s and early '80s references this week, I could hear Charlie commercials in my head. Halston, famed in that era, showed drape-y colorful maxi dresses and caftans that could have been lifted straight out of the archives. Marc Jacobs showed brightly colored pantsuits and full-length halter dresses.

PRINT MADNESS: Spring is traditionally all about florals. Jason Wu's breezy blouses had cut-out posies. DNKY had tiny flower prints on youthful dresses. Michael Angel went the painterly route with a collection of beautiful multi-colored frocks.

FEMININE VERSUS MASCULINE: Jill Stuart typified the feminine push/masculine pull with high-water tuxedos followed by flouncy, frilly dresses accessorized with masculine belts. The juxtaposition was stunning.

CANDY COLORS: Michael Kors trotted out fuchsia and green. Rebecca Taylor favored orange. Cynthia Rowley went for yellow. Candy colors ruled the day.

Tags: Cynthia Rowley, Derek Lam, DKNY, Edun, Halston, Jason Wu, Jill Stuart, L.A.M.B., Lincoln Center, Mackage, Marc Jacobs, Marchesa, Michael Angel, Michael Kors, New York Fashion Week, Ralph Lauren, Rebecca Taylor, Suno, Tommy Hilfiger

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The Fashion Statement: Out of Africa

by Kristin Young (RSS feed) —

Filed under: The Fashion Statement

The fashion world is obsessed with Africa. To wit, see a spring look at Rodarte (above) shown on a model painted with tribal tats.

The New York Times had a wonderful story last week about why this is so, listing all kinds of converging influences from Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti to the popularity of Duro Olowu and a whole host of other Nigerian designers in London.

And there's a separate phenomenon emerging from fashion's fascination with Africa. Fashion philanthropists who are capitalizing on this trend and all the while helping the people who need it most: Africans.

The NYT mentioned filmmaker-cum-designer Max Osterweis and his Suno line that brings jobs to people in Kenya. Suno's line of graphic patterns inspired by vintage African kangas he collected during his travels can be found at Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles and New York. Even Michelle Obama has worn Suno.

Time magazine's Style & Design issue earlier this year wrote a story about global fashion executives forging partnerships with artisans and, as a result, has boosted employment and changed lives. Max & Co. is one of the retailers carrying beaded necklaces, belts and crocheted pieces sewn by Kenyan women.

I came across another fashion activist last year. San Francisco attorney Ann Elston traded her corner office for a life of peddling jewelry at tradeshows, festivals and retailers all to benefit the Blue Men of the Sahara, or the Tuaregs. The Tuaregs are historically expert silversmiths and they are nomads who roam anywhere from Morocco to Niger. Recently, they have found their way of life threatened by borders, dictatorships and lack of economic opportunity.

So Elston runs a website that sells Tuareg-made jewelry without keeping a penny for herself.

"It's all they've got," she told me today, noting the basics like good hospitals, police and schools in Niger are substandard given the current political situation.

I'm particularly impressed with the chunky cuffs that are inlaid with ebony amulets. It's just the sort of primitive, slightly fierce look the fashion world craves right now.

Check it out at http://www.tuaregjewelry.com/products.php?row_offset=10&cat_id=2

So I'm appealing to fashionistas far and wide: As long as we're pining for all things African, go to the source now and again. Whether it's beads made by women in Nairobi, jewelry by the Tuaregs or kangas by Kenyan women, buy goods that can benefit the country we're having a love affair with right now.

Tags: Africa, Duro Olowu, DuroOlowu, Suno, Tuaregs, www.tuaregjewelry.com